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The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing,
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The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument Paperback - 2014 - 1st Edition

by Mark Vail

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From the publisher

Electronic music instruments weren't called synthesizers until the 1950s, but their lineage began in 1919 with Russian inventor Lev Sergeyevich Termen's development of the Etherphone, now known as the Theremin. From that point, synthesizers have undergone a remarkable evolution from prohibitively large mid-century models confined to university laboratories to the development of musical synthesis software that runs on tablet computers and portable media devices.

Throughout its history, the synthesizer has always been at the forefront of technology for the arts. In The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument, veteran music technology journalist, educator, and performer Mark Vail tells the complete story of the synthesizer: the origins of the many forms the instrument takes; crucial advancements in sound generation, musical control, and composition made with instruments that may have become best sellers or gone entirely unnoticed; and the basics and intricacies of acoustics and synthesized sound. Vail also describes how to successfully select, program, and play a synthesizer; what alternative controllers exist for creating electronic music; and how to stay focused and productive when faced with a room full of instruments. This one-stop reference guide on all things synthesizer also offers tips on encouraging creativity, layering sounds, performance, composing and recording for film and television, and much more.

Details

  • Title The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument
  • Author Mark Vail
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 432
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Oxford University Press
  • Publication date 2014-02-19
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780195394894 / 0195394895
  • Weight 2.05 lbs (0.93 kg)
  • Dimensions 10.9 x 8.4 x 1.3 in (27.69 x 21.34 x 3.30 cm)
  • Category Music/Songbooks
  • Library of Congress subjects Electronic music - Instruction and study, Synthesizer (Musical instrument) -
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2013008727
  • Dewey Decimal Code 786.741

About the author

Building on his life-long interest in music, Mark Vail discovered synthesizers in 1973 and bought his first in 1976. After earning an MFA in electronic music in 1983, he served on the editorial staff at Keyboard magazine from 1988 to 2001. The author of Vintage Synthesizers and The Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B, Mark is internationally acknowledged as a foremost authority on synthesizers.
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The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the...

The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument

by Mark Vail

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Paperback / softback. New. Electronic music instruments known as synthesizers have been around since the 1950s, but the past few decades have seen their capabilities expand exponentially and their forms shape-shift from room-filling grandeur to sophisticated applications that run on pocket-sized phones and MP3 players. This book reveals the history, basics, forms, and uses of this astonishing instrument.
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